Drops of Rain
by Pallarel Studios
Summary: Watching the rain out the window... the last days of Shinji Ikari.


This takes place 60 years after Third Impact, which makes Shinji about 74-75. While not mind-blowingly dark and evil, I think its kind of like the series ending, which, not the insane, screaming dark, is the guise of a happy ending, while underneath being this really twisted, disturbing ending. 

The series ending is SO much better than the movie ending.

In mind-fucking aspects.

**Drops of Rain**

**By DorianGray**

The rain...

It always rained these days.

Shinji Ikari watched the rain fall steadily onto the window, each drop racing each other to reach the bottom of the glass pane.

It rained regularly here, at his mountain home. It had always rained at least once a week since he had moved here...twenty? thirty?...years ago. In his old age, the rain, and the cold it brought with it, made his right knee stiff, where he had taken a JSSDF bullet nearly sixty years ago. 

No amount of stiffness in his legs, or remoteness, or the amount of effort needed to farm his land for food, ever stopped him appreciating the mountains. He had always liked the mountains, and remembered coming here frequently even when he was an Eva pilot.

He looked back down on the letter that had been delivered to him that morning. While not unexpected, it didn't lessen the hurt. 

Hikari Horaki, the iron-willed Class Rep, had finally succumbed to the heart murmur that had prevented her from piloting an Eva. It had not helped that her long-time husband, his friend Touji, had passed away not one week before.

Every week seemed to bring news of another death. Workers and technicians at NERV. Classmates. People that he had known, once upon a time, in another life. Many of them, he never needed to mourn. They had never returned.

Kensuke had died before Third Impact had even taken place, and so was prohibited to return to earth. Another casualty of the JSSDF, his love of military had saved the lives of many of his classmates, including Hikari and Touji, when the level they had been occupying in the NERV complex was stormed by members of the JSSDF.

Misato Katsuragi... her body never found, she had never returned from the sea of LCL. Neither had Ritsuko Akagi, found floating in a pool of LCL where Terminal Dogma used to be... SEELE... Gendo Ikari...

_When in need, everyone looks to old, dependable Shinji. But what happens when Shinji was no longer there?_

Not that he had to worry about anything anymore. He was almost the last one of that time left. He had no children. When he died, it would be of no particular loss to the world.

He looked back out the window, watching the raindrops fall.

A blessed, cool rain.

It was raining at the cemetery, too. The noise of rain on grass and stone threatened to drown out the voice of the celebrant.

_...in her life, Hikari Horaki had devoted herself to her family and those souls abandoned after the terrors of Third Impact..._

Beneath his black umbrella, Shinji looked up to see the familiar face of Asuka, standing on the opposite side of the coffin. Time had not destroyed her looks, if anything, they had improved. Her red hair was still as bright as ever, although had telltale signs of grey at the front. 

She still had the scars from the MP Eva battle.

After the celebrant had finished and left, Shinji spoke. "We're the last ones left."

She nodded. "Well, make sure my funeral is nice." She smiled, wiping tears from her eyes. "Can't let anyone else live longer than the Invincible Shinji, can we?"

He laughed. They had joked about that since the first day after Third Impact. "Indeed."

He led her to her car. His expression grew serious again. "Well, see you at the next reunion." She nodded again and got in the car.

He left shortly after.

The letter bearing the news got there before he did.

He sat in his chair, held his face in his hands, and cried.

It was still raining.

Shinji stared out at the sunset from his seat on the sand of the beach. The sunset was beautiful, the sort artists paint. The sort romantics bask in the light of. The sort poets mean for bittersweet moments.

Exactly sixty years ago here, had the world been reborn.

And, for every day in those sixty years, he had wondered if he had made the right choice.

And, like every other time they had been faced with an unfamiliar situation, Humanity had gone to war. The amount of lives lost in the wars humanity themselves had created took nearly as many lives as Third Impact itself.

_When in need, everyone looks to old, dependable Shinji. But what happens when Shinji was no longer there?_

He was the last one left. With his death, the last link between humanity and the events of the past would be erased forever. Of course, the ocean of LCL, the devastation on population, people, land, it would all still be there.

But humanity would no longer remember.

Would the world even care?

Maybe it was for the better.

Shinji rose, took off his suit jacket, threw it on the beach, and started wading deep into the LCL.

With a great dive, he plunged in.

He had never learnt how to swim.

As Shinji sank, memories flashed before his eyes.

One year ago...

Two years ago...

Ten years ago...

Twenty years ago...

Eva...

_Did I make the right choice?_ was his last thought, before his mind was plunged into darkness.

The light of a room was approaching. Or was he approaching it?

For every step he took, he grew younger.

Old age...

Middle age...

Teen years...

He opened the door.

He stood there, dumbfounded, in the body of his fourteen-year-old self, standing amongst his old friends and co-workers. There was Misato... and Ritsuko... Asuka... Rei... Kaworu...

Father....

Mother...

They were all applauding.

"Congratulations!" Misato. 

"Congratulations!" Ritsuko.

"Congratulations!" Rei.

"Congratulations!" Kaworu.

"Congratulations!" Father.

"Congratulations!" Mother.

He smiled. "Thank you, all."

In his house on top of the mountain, a book, a diary, was open on its last page.

_To all the Children: Congratulations._

fin


End file.
